


Flames in the Shadows

by DKTakes12



Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive
Genre: F/M, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016), Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, lunyx
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 08:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14016258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DKTakes12/pseuds/DKTakes12
Summary: Nyx wakes up in Lunafreya's bed, barely aware of where he is and half lost in nightmares. Luna's his only comfort in these dark moments.*There is suggested nudity but nothing explicit*





	Flames in the Shadows

Nyx woke with a start, his heart pounding in his chest. The feel of the sheets against his bare hips was different than the usual course fabric he slept with, soft and gentle, and there was a weight on his chest. A weight so heavy, Nyx felt like he was drowning. Sweat pooled at his hairline. The room was dark, suffocating. Copper coated his tongue and he gripped the sheets in his fists. He could barely stomach the thoughts that rang through his head.

_A comrade, corpse thrown across you as you hide in a field. The daemons won’t find you under the bodies of the dead. You must have been injured, torn apart by s _omething or other, Hero. If it’s been this long, long enough to forget where you are and what happened, then they aren’t coming back for you. Your sacrifice is for nothing. Your borrowed powers will be shrugged off to another. What good have you done besides getting others killed?__

He choked on his own panic. All he had to do was get up, go back home. It was easy. It was a simple task and he was not a simple man. He was worth the wait and they wouldn't leave him to die. Nyx was the hero. _They say that with spite._ They owed him. _For what?_ He - _you abuse the King's power, vow to save others but watch them crumble instead. Your sister, Crowe, hundreds of others you left on the battle field. They owe you nothing. The Gods have given you nothing; they have only ever taken. And you will drown here in this darkness._

His tongue stung as he clamped down. If he screamed, even though it threatened to tear through him, the daemons would find him. Nyx Ulric was a fighter. He wouldn't lay down and die...even if everything told him that was the best, the easiest, option.

“Nyx?” The weight shifted. A hand met his cheek. Skin like silk stroked from his temple to his lips, warm and alive. She moved so her chest lay flat against his and their hearts attempted to beat in time. A trail of blonde slipped over her shoulder and tickled his chin. “Are you alright?” Her breath stained his cheek with warmth, comfort.

His heart pounded so hard it threatened to burst but he forced a nod. The tension in his throat blossomed, threaded through his muscles and struck every nerve ending he had. She didn't need to see his weakness.

Luna sat, sheets pooling around her bare waist. She flicked the bedside lamp on and slid closer to him before grasping a hand and placing it on her chest. Nyx couldn’t uncurl his fist. She ran her fingers over his knuckles.

“It’s alright.” Luna whispered. She kissed his forehead and ran her free hand through his hair. “Whatever you were thinking, it’s alright.”

He struggled to breathe. Each pound of his heart shattered ribs. A tide of panic ran over him again and again. Nyx didn’t know why this had to happen with Luna around. Why couldn’t he control it until he was home? Home would have been a much better place to deal with these...feelings.

She muttered sweet nothings while she curved her thumb across the arches of his cheekbones and the tattoo on his neck. Never close enough to smother, she tucked her knees up to her chest for some modesty. He was supposed to be her protector and now she was easing him. What warped sense of humour did the Gods have?

She helped him sit and pulled him into the curve of her shoulder. “What did you dream, Sir Ulric?” Her lips pressed against the crown of his head and she ran her fingers in circles down his bare spine.

“Sir?” Nyx choked out a laugh, struggling for normalcy. He trailed his gaze across the shadow of her collar bone, focused on the smooth sheen of her skin. “What’s with the formalities all of a sudden? Treating me like a Princess’ boy toy.” Anything but the terror and helplessness, it was a vice tightened around each of his veins.

Luna laughed and he felt the hum of it under her skin, in her chest. Her hand curved under his chin and lifted his gaze. Before he could process the softness of her skin and glow of the lamp in her sea blue eyes, she caught his lips with hers. Her hand rested on his cheek and the warmth soothed the panicked flutter in his chest.

He may have the power of the Gods on loan from the King, but he was sleeping with the Oracle. What was there to truly fear?

Nyx wrapped a hand around her waist. In a simple twist of weight, he threw her onto the bed underneath him. One hand cupped the skin of her thigh, the other braced himself upright by her head. He needed to wash the thoughts away. He would drown in her instead. His fingers trailed across her stomach, his lips crushed hers against his until he was dizzy with it. Nothing made sense, nothing came into clarity or focus. He could still feel the eyes of daemons on his back and hear the gurgle of their spawn.

“Nyx!” She gasped against his lips with a squeal.

He broke away, elbows braced on either side of her. “What? You said you liked it when I was forward.” The pound of his heart formed pressure in his eyes; Nyx couldn't see the soft arch of her nose or the gentle heart of her lips clearly.

“You and I know you’re only doing this to hide whatever it is inside.” Luna frowned, the sadness tinting the rounded curves of her face with a sharpened edge. She placed her hand on his chest and stiffened with the beat of his pounding heart. She closed her eyes for a moment and her lips parted with a sigh. “There are wounds even I cannot ease. It does not mean you fight against your daemons alone, my hero.”

 _Hero._ Whatever strength he managed to get back snapped. He grasped at her, pulled her into his arms as if a tide was threatening to pull her away. He clung to her, a rock in a raging storm, as he broke. Her hands remained at his sides for only moments before she was clinging to him as well. The two of them weathering this panic and pain together, he never wanted her to see this.

Luna rested her head on his shoulder, soft breath against his skin. He breathed in her scent, tried to place each of the complicated fragrances that made whatever floral perfume she wore so he didn't have to think. _Blood. Acid taste in your mouth from the warp. The sting of your flesh as your pieces pull back together after being torn apart to jump. There's a body at your feet. Do you know the face? It looks like her. Maybe it is her. Who is it? Which one? Pick, Hero. They all die in the end. You can't save them._

There was no control suddenly and his hands were shaking against the bare skin of Luna's back. Even the touch of her silk skin against his couldn’t calm him. She pulled his chest wide open and only exposed all the broken pieces. All the things he so desperately wanted to hide was bare. He was drowning in himself.

_Help me!_

He couldn't save anyone; hero was a mantel he had no right to wear.

Luna kissed the edge of his jaw and forced him to meet her eyes. It was enough of a snap to draw him forward, half out of the darkness. He was drowning but he wished he was drowning in her instead of himself.

“The Gods have not forgotten you." She stroked his cheek with the delicate tips of her fingers. "They have not forsaken you." Luna pressed their foreheads together for a moment before pulling away to face him. He focused on the light in her eyes, how she always remained calm even in the storm. The tide crashed around him. It pounded heavy on his back, but she was here. Inches away and anchored.

"They cannot discard a man with as much value as you. They need you as much as the Glaive...as much as I.” Her lips pursed, a blush of pink on the pale flush of her skin curved her cheeks. “I love you, Nyx Ulric.”

The blood in his veins thrummed straight to his head. Nyx was going to burst. There was no response he could think of that would be appropriate. He had muttered his love in her ear a thousand times, slipping past her while on guard duty, in moments stolen on a balcony, lost in thought with her curled on his lap. Never once did he expect a response nor did he deserve one. She was betrothed to the Prince. He had assumed his role as a lover and expected nothing when the True King returned.

_But she loves you. Like Crowe, like your sister. Like everyone who shouts Hero._

Luna’s fingers brushed away the tears falling down his cheeks. She stayed still, frozen, in his arms. “I will not take back my words.”

He swallowed and spoke without thinking. “I…I don’t want you do.” Nyx couldn’t lose her. A part of him never wanted this to end.

“Shall I say them again?” She sat fully, linked her arms around his neck and twisted her fingers in the ends of his hair. Her touch was gentle, as it always was. She treated him like a half-tamed fiend. “I love you.”

Nyx’s heart lived in his throat.

“I’ve been cursed and blessed my entire life and the Gods have given me you. Our chance meeting was fate. This is fate. I will not let go of my blessings. Do you understand?”

Was he really a blessing? Or was he a curse?

Her lips met his. An unspoken hunger, a need, was muttered against his tongue. His hands fell to her hips, thumbs circling the soft skin underneath his calloused palms. He was a blessing?

“You’re wrong, Princess.” He muttered the words as he trailed kisses down her neck and shoulder. “You’re wrong.” He traced the curve from rib to hip. She was the blessing. The Gods couldn’t have given him more.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been idly mulling over writing a larger Lunyx fic, taking place during the cannon of Kingsglaive. Not sure yet, but this little snippet would be part of it if I did decided to continue and expand.


End file.
